Tagged: literature

A Review of Christian Wiman’s Spiritual Autobiography

In his review of Christian Wiman’s spiritual autobiography, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, Jay Parini discusses Wiman’s emphasis on the importance of faith to a critic. Here is an extract: It strikes me that criticism—systemic reflection on texts, even on life itself—has lost its urgency during the past 30 years or more, [...]

An Oddly Modern Antiquarian Bookshop

In an intriguing article for the New York Times, Jody Rosen discusses a fascinating but little-known bookstore called Monkey’s Paw, and gives ideas on how such businesses fit into today’s literary world. Here is an extract: “Life-Spark Stories for the Intelligent Young.” Attributed to the author “R. K.,” it tells the story of a “bright [...]

Zachary Bos on Robert Bringhurst

The Administrative Coordinator of the Core, Zachary Bos, recently wrote a letter to the Boston Finneganers regarding Robert Bringhurst’s books: Dear Friends, and members of the Boston Finneganers: I have a great deal of appreciation for Robert Bringhurst’s books – his interest and valuation of languages, literatures, and the technical means these comes to us; his sense of [...]

André Alexis: Why Read?

The essay discusses David Shields’ novel How Literature Saved My Life, and how its ideas truly relate to many aspects of existence. Here is an extract: One of the other things literature does is that it keeps the plates in the air, so to speak. Much thinking, in the humanities, has shifted from the answer-oriented [...]